"Taste of Summer" is now available

"Taste of Summer"- 18x24 Original Oil painting

I know that summer is here when I see those large bins of watermelon available at the grocery store.  I'm not talking about the sad selection that we had all winter, but piles of beautiful round, sweet melons.  Cutting into that first melon of the summer is pure joy. 

And of course what is summer without pitchers of fresh squeezed lemonade.  That frosty tangy sweetness is the answer to a hot summer afternoon and believe me when I say that in Las Vegas we know HOT! 

Yes, it is the fruit that I look forward to in the summer.  All winter we have endured a limited selection of apples, oranges and bananas but now we have beautiful berries and melons to add to our culinary delights.  I hope this painting makes you want to grab a straw and enjoy the "Taste of Summer".

This piece was painting in my Las Vegas studio.  The original is currently hanging at The City of the World Gallery at 1229 S. Casino Center Blvd where I have a number of my pieces hanging.  If your interested in the original you can contact me directly and if you would like to consider ordering a print you can find it available at http://fineartamerica.com/featured/taste-of-summer-julie-townsend.html

Like a Mad Scientist...Experimenting With Color

Yesterday, I started blogging about a book I was reading written by Margaret Kessler titled "Color Harmony".  I didn't make it off page 15 because there was such good information that I need to spend time  soaking it all in.  I underlined a statement under the subtitle -Increasing Intensity.  Kessler states, "To brighten a dull or tinted color, add a warm color to the mixture."  This is a bit more complicated than that because we all leaned in elementary art class that  if you add primary colors together we get a neutral color.  Not what we want here so she warns that it is important that we understand the proportions of primary color that each color contains.  The natural thought is if you want to brighten a color that you would add white and to darken you would add black.  This isn't  always a correct assumption.  Adding white to a color will often cause the color to be washed out and to look chalky. I will sometimes counteract that by adding some Naples Yellow to the color so that I don't loose the brightness.

 Adding black does darken but can look unnatural according to Kessler.  Payne's gray can darken a color but can also make the color seem boring.  I've decided to remind myself of this fact by only putting the smallest amount of Payne's gray on my palette when I lay out my colors because my natural instinct is to dip my brush in that color when it would be better for me to use dioxidine purple or ultramarine blue for my shadow colors.

Adding the complement of the color can mute and darken the color.  Adding a warm color can brighten or intensify the color. There is a great deal of information shared just on this one page and I know that it is time to pretend that I'm a mad scientist and cook up some color experiments of my own.  I think I just might take a large canvas and just section it off and do a color study this weekend.  Maybe I will just come out with some "Popping" creations and learn something in the process!

Here is my son, Dr. Jared Townsend-a for real scientist

Here Jared is conducting an experiment but I don't think he looks too mad.

Naples Yellow-SUNSHINE in a Tube

Since I am a self-taught artist, with little or no formal training to speak of, my knowledge of mixing colors is very basic and is mostly what Mr. Easton taught me in high school art class in Eldon, Missouri.  I have spent the past 2 years, going through bottles of white acrylic paint because logic told me that to lighten a color, add white.  I would add white to my colors if I wanted to gradually lighten the base color or to add a refection.  If you add white to green or brown it results in a color that is lighter but often I noticed that the color seemed to loose the vibrancy and actually become duller and even gray.  I couldn't figure out why other artists have the ability to paint beautiful landscapes that reflect bright blue skies, striking sunsets or sparkling water.  Heck, even their dirt is brighter than mine it seems.

At my first painting lesson two weeks ago, I was introduced to an amazing color that I had never heard of before...NAPLES YELLOW.  It is a mixture of white and yellow ochre and maybe something else.  You can find all the specific chemistry used to create this color online, but to me, it is like having SUNSHINE in a tube!  I went right out and bought myself some and couldn't wait to compare the colors that I could mix. 

I also found that I am not alone in my praise of this pigment.  I found a very well written explanation on an artist forum called "Wet Canvas" that I thought I would include.

Larry says...."As a plein air painter of subjects outdoors...I generally observe that light and color appear warmer. It is difficult imitating color we see outdoors in natural light, and our tendency is to add white to "brighten" as well as lighten a color. What I have observed quite some time ago is that white is a cool color (generally speaking)...and yes, it tints...but it also cools the color down and flattens its potential for three dimensional punch. Cooling down or neutralizing works against the notion of "brightening"...and is thus counter productive for me.

What I use as a substitute for tinting closer color to maintain warmth and yet lighten is Naples Yellow. It makes lovely tints that feel warmer. As a color goes back I'll use some Naples Yellow plus white since that color would begin to lose its sense of nearness to the eye anyway, and if I want the color to appear even further back I'll use just the white to tint.

I try to be sparing with my use of white so that particular highlights I want will pop with greater depth illusion. Of course it is not always possible to avoid white...so I'll often add a bit of Naples to the mix after using white to restore some of the warmth lost.

Some will argue against this, as is their right...but such thinking has worked for me for umteen years, and I think where painting is concerned the ends does justify the means. Proof is in the pudding as they say..." 

Larry (09-12-2005, 03:35 PM  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-294388.html)

First I took Hooker Green and mixed a small amount of white.  I also took the same amount of Hooker Green and mixed it with an equal portion of Naples Yellow.  You can see my second mixture has a warmer glow than does the first.  I have experienced Hooker Green turning a gray tone very easily when I'm trying to paint a variety of foliage.  Trees don't look that gray to me so this isn't something I want to find happening on my palette.

The second color I mixed was using my bottle of Apple Barrel Chocolate Bar Brown as the base color.  This really showed the remarkable difference in tone and vibrancy as you can see by the photo below.  Naples Yellow has definitely won a big place on my palette. 

Check out my website to see all my available artwork.  julietownsendstudio.com.  I would love to hear from you.